If only I had it my way
by Mikasuka
Summary: Kazuto, the charming prince of his school, and the gamer of a lifetime gets trapped in the death game SAO. He tries to get his friends together, but can only find one of them, Shino which he logged on with. After a unexpected encounter with a player named Klein Kazuto (Now Kirito) and Shino (Now Sinon) join him to look for the others. Will they be able to keep each other safe?
1. The rescue

I have two other stories on right now that you should also check out, if you want of course. Other than that this is my first time not using an OC so enjoy!

I am sorry to say this, but I don't own SAO or any of its characters.

(^_^)/~~~

It was a usual morning, woke up at 6:30 for school, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, eat breakfast, and walked to school with my little sister. Not too long ago one of my friends told me that you could sign up to be a beta tester for this new game that is going to be coming out soon, I really enjoyed playing games but recently I have been too busy with student council work to be able to play many. I was still considered a gamer though, no matter how it went I was still a gamer.

Walking up to my little sisters middle school we parted was and I started thinking about how my day might go today. As I got close to my school I knew that another day of being a prince wasn't going to go well. I don't know when, but sometime after I started high-school I was the most popular guy, highest grades, and not after long I was getting loads of love letters.

As I walked through the school gates a girl walked up to me, "Excuse me," she said in a sweet voice. "Kazuto- , would you… you know… go out with me." I had gotten used to this as sad as it was, I always told them that we could be friends, but you know how love is.

"I'm sorry, but we could always be friends," I tried to put on the most charming smile I could, along with the best voice I had.

"No, sorry I asked." She said as she ran to two of her friends, and all I heard were, "aww, that's too bad try again sometime." I could never help but always feel bad for them. Well onto class.

Walking through the entrance to the school I go to my shoe locker to change to my indoor shoes, but stopped as soon as I heard a quiet scream from outside. Quickly putting my indoor shoes back in the locker and closing it I go outside smelling what smelled like rain. I look up and see that the sky is darkening, I hurry and look for where the scream came from, suddenly I heard somebody laughing, then another small scream.

I ran towards the back of the school, I still couldn't see anything, and now rain was slowly coming down; I had to hurry. I run over to where the schools shed for doing sports, and I see four girls behind the shed. One had somewhat short black hair tied in three different spots, with her bangs tied in three different spots, two in front of each ear, and one going over her nose and slightly under her eye. All I could see was the back of three mischievous girls.

"Hey!" he yell getting all their attention, "what do you girls think you're doing to her!?" they all looked at me nervously; they knew the consequences when you fought in front of the student council president.

"Nothing, we were just…" the girl in the middle looked to the one on her right, "just talking." She said nervously.

"Really now?" I said as I looked the one in the middle in the eye and walked closer, "Don't tell me you were picking on Shino again?" then I looked away scratching my chin. "hmm… faculty room now!" I said as they ran off. Ever since middle school Shino Asada has been a target for bully's when they found out her story when she shot a guy to protect her mother, and killed him. Everyone called her a murderer, and other malicious names, but no one ever understood her intentions.

The rain started to come down harder, but luckily we were covered by the shed stopping too much rain from hitting us. I kneel down and offer the black haired girl a hand, "You okay? Do you need medical attention?" She shook her head nervously as she grabbed my hand and I lifted her up.

"Why did you do that?" she questioned - seriously way to thank me. "You shouldn't hang around me, you will get made fun of too." I could understand why she would say that yet, I was disappointed, angry, and sad at the same time.

"I don't care what they think of me for that," I said as she looked up at me with admiration, "Even if they think whatever of me, I did what I believe to be right and that's what matters." I could tell those words really meant a lot to her, but knowing her she will probably deny it, and say something against that.

"But…" I put my finger in front of her lips.

"Don't say anymore, c'mon we'll be late." I say as I put my jacket over her to cover her from the rain. She walked quietly behind to me as we walked to our class. The bell had rung a while ago, so we were late which was excused due to the circumstances. Surprisingly everyone just seemed to like me more after what happened, I thought for sure that they would be upset for getting close to Shino like almost always.

When the lunch bell rang a friend of mine came over. She had brown hair, with clips holding it out of her face, small barely visible freckles under her eyes, and her few strands of hair that went over her forehead, but she always wore a cheerful smile and was at everything except games and academics.

"Kazuto- , we better hurry or lunch will be over." She said as she leaned close to me, which made me feel slightly uncomfortable, "Oh and my friend Asuna will be there also." She said with her normal smile.

"Oh Asuna… Asuna Yuuki, that rich girl?" I said with a uncertain tone of voice, I recognized the name because she was one of the top students In the school, and plus she was never late.

"Yeah that's her," Rika said with her cheerful voice. I have known Rika since first year in middle school, and since then we have been close friends, but I was never really able to make friends with anyone else because the guys were jealous, and the girls all just wanted to date so that would lead to problems. Although I knew Rika felt the same way about me, she wouldn't say because she knows the answer; for now at least. Plus I since I was always either gaming, or studying I didn't really have time for friends.

After getting to the bench right outside the school, near the track I seen a girl with a nice figure standing there waving at my friend. Her long chestnut hair blowing in the wind made her look like a model, or one of those girls who get a few too many love letters and get tired of it really fast.

"Rika!" she yelled across the field to my friend, as we walked over there I noticed that her expression changed as soon as she seen me. She quickly ran over to Rika and whispered something into her ear, I had a strange feeling about this and it just got worse as I noticed them whispering back and forth.

"I'm going to go sit down," I said as I walked over to the bench.

"Wait," Rika said as she grabbed my sleeve, "at least introduce yourself first."

I sighed, I couldn't believe this, this girl Asuna seemed somewhat uncomfortable around me, I thought I should just brush it off as much as possible. "Alright. Nice to meet you, my name is Kazuto Kirigaya." I reached out my hand to shake hers.

"I'm Asuna Yuuki." She said as we shook, then the three of us went to go sit down. "It cleared up fast didn't it?" I really couldn't tell who the was aimed at.

"Yeah, but I am glad it did." Rika replied with that cheerful voice that never seemed to go away. I just sat there and ate quietly without ever saying much. I answered a few questions but mostly stayed quiet. I may be the most popular guy at school, but I am actually pretty shy and reserved.

\\(^-^)/

A few hours later school was out and we all got to go home, most would say this is the best part of the day or the most important, but I always found it a pain. Honestly the change in environment was too drastic for me, one minute I am sitting in a desk forced to be quiet, then the next I have to go outside and walk.

The sky had cleared up since this morning, but that just meant that there would be more people walking around town now. As I walked out of the school gates towards my sister's school Rika ran up to me. We lived somewhat close, but her apartment was the same direction as my sister's middle school so we just always walked together 'till we got to her house.

"Say Kazuto- … what did you think of Asuna?" I figured she was going to ask this, honestly why would you introduce your crush to other girls.

"Hmm…" I tried to pretend to think.

As we walked up to the crosswalk she lightly slapped my shoulder, "C'mon Kazuto- , you liked her huh?"

"No… no nothing like that, more like the stereotypical rich girl. You know attractive, but hates when guys ask her out." I tried to come up with something that could deter the subject.

"I heard that you got all chummy with Asada Shino- ." I know where she is going yet again, but this time it doesn't really matter – maybe.

"Yeah I guess you could say that, but I was helping her from bully's more like." We were now in the major part of town with all the alleyways and street shops, I tried to point things out on them but that never would work on Rika. After we got to her place, I headed towards my little sister's school when I remembered that she had practice today, and wouldn't need to be picked up 'till later.

I decided to do some window shopping to pass the time, and check out the street stands. As I stopped at a dumpling stand I heard the sound of a metal trashcan violently being knocked over. I knew that meant trouble, then I heard some girls talking loudly from that direction so I decide to check it out. I run to the thin alley way where the noise came from, and walk over to the three people that stand there. As I walked closely I see Asada- on the ground getting into a fight with the three girls from earlier, they were blaming her for their suspension. I couldn't stand it anymore, they have taken this too far, Asada- was now hurt I couldn't tell how much, but she definitely was hurt.

I punch the girl in the middle making her fall down on her knees. The school skirts were pretty short so I'm sure she scrapped her knee. "You three up to no good again." I say my voice full of malice. I couldn't stand these three anymore.

One of the three girls grabbed Asada- by the neck, and I could tell her leg hurt badly from the way she was standing. "What are you going to do about us huh?" the girl I just punched said, "Call the police?"

"I would," I said but was hiding my laughter as I seen these three 'tough' girls scared. "but I feel like settling this myself." I punched the other girl right above the naval. I was trying not to hurt them too badly, I just wanted to physically punish them.

The girl holding Asada- threw her down and punched me square in the face, and I got to admit she punches hard. As I gripped my nose she said, "Three against one, you really think you can win this prince?" I could tell she was being sarcastic near the end.

"You three sure are stubborn huh?" I said as I popped my knuckles, "More fun for me than." I gave each one a good side thrusting kick the weakest I could, but still knocked all three of them to the ground. "I bet you three didn't do kendo, or taekwondo. I would like you guys to leave now." I said with a hint of seriousness in my voice near the end.

After the three girls left I went to check on Asada- who seemed to be having a hard time standing. "Are you okay?" I reached out my hand for her. "Do you need help?" She looked up at me, I could tell her eyes were watering, but she resisted the urge to cry.

"I'm fine, but… thank you." She smiled. I think that was the first time I seen her smile in my life, it felt pretty good to be honest. She tried to stand up but fell on top of me instead, catching her I quickly decided that I needed to help her home.

"Do you live alone?" I ask hoping that she didn't/

"Yeah." I could hear regret.

"Would you be more comfortable staying at my place until your foot is better?" I knew this was a awkward question, and simply weird I mean, who would trust a guy she just met and not only that but the most popular guy in school that could very well be a playboy.

"Would that be okay? I wouldn't be in your way at all would I?" I could tell she was worried, but still I didn't want her to hurt herself at home.

"Yeah, my mom and sister would love to have you over." I smiled as best I could, but suddenly my phone went off the hook, my sister was calling. "Hold on a sec. it's my sister." I answer the phone only to hear her breathing hard into the microphone.

"Big brother, where are you?" I didn't like the sound of this, she sounded somewhat upset. I look at the time wondering if that was the cause only to find, myself thirty minutes late.

"I'm sorry, Sugu I will be right there, oh and one of my friends is coming with me, and she'll probably stay the night 'kay?"

"She?" I knew where she was going.

"Don't worry you'll know when the time comes, see ya." I hang up. "C'mon Asada- let's go." I lean down to give her a hand. She put all her weight onto my shoulders and wrapped her arms around my neck, I slightly blushed and I bet she was to.

\\(^_^)/

As i walked in with Asada- who was now Shino, and Sugu my adoptive mother Hidori Kirigaya greeted us. I could see how shocked she was when she seen Shino, I chuckled on the inside, but made sure not to let it out.

The kitchen was long, but thin, the living room had a nice L-shaped couch with a little coffee table in the middle, Across from the couch was our 55' flat screen TV, and behind the couch was the dining room, with a nice classy dining table and 4 chairs. Right outside the kitchen was the stairs which led to my room, Sugu's room, mom and dad's room, the bathroom, and a closet with our towels and stuff.

Walking into the kitchen I noticed all the stainless steel appliances shining brightly, they looked cleaner than I have seen them in a long time, plus the sink was actually cleaned. My mom noticed me looking at everything she smiled and tilted her head a bit to the right and said, "When I heard that you were bringing a girl over I cleaned as much as I could."

"Just so you know she hurt her foot earlier, I don't know if you could take a look at that please." I tired to change the subject, because recently this is all people will do to me, my mom, dad, Sugu, and even Rika have tried to hook me up.

"Yes, I will go look." She said before walking off to look at it.

\\( ^_^)/

After the four of us ate dinner together Shino decided that she would stay the night, and that was my mom's idea of course. She was going to sleep on the couch, and Sugu was also going to sleep in the living room in case she needed anything. After our baths, my mom, Sugu, and Shino were all talking about some stuff, so assuming it was girl talk I went to bed.

As I laid in my bed I recalled how thiswas the first time a girl as ever stayed the night at my house, and to be honest it made me feel weird, I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow brings.

\\\\(^_^ )

Hope you liked it, please comment your thoughts and criticism, I am always open to suggestions! I don't know when I will update, but it will be soon!


	2. Trapped

Wow, this story got a lot more views than I thought it would. I just actually finished an online writing class so I hope it only gets better! Oh and I wanted to say thanks to those who fav'd and followed the story, means a lot to me! Plus the reviews are great!

( ^_^)/

My eyes opened slowly to the beams of light shining through where my curtain didn't cover. I laid on my bed, slowly getting used to the brightness the room already had. I sat up and grabbed my phone that sat on my small desk that sat next to my bed. Turning on the phone screen I saw that it was only 6 am, 30 minutes earlier than usual. I wasn't really able to sleep that well knowing that a friend that was a… girl was staying at my place overnight. I guess that even though Sugu isn't actually my sister, but my cousin I never thought about it with her. I couldn't help but feel weird that Shino was not only sleeping here, but took a bath here, it just… didn't sit well with me for some reason.

I stood up and walked over to the shelf that was across my room and grabbed a magazine that was sitting on top of a row of manga's. Flipping through it hoping it would help me take my mind of things the things that were going on in my house. Skimming though each page I opened to a quite interesting one about the new MMORPG full dive VR game that was coming out called SAO (Sword Art Online). Looking for any important details about the game I noticed that it said they were looking for beta-testers, and it gave the information for signing up. Rika seemed excited about this game so I thought that it was worth a try.

I filled out the required information on my computer, and it said they would message me within 24 hours if I got the spot; walking downstairs I seen Sugu, and mom making breakfast while Shino was just sitting on the couch. Sitting on the opposite side of her I asked her, "Is your foot okay?" she nodded. I couldn't really tell, but she looked somewhat uncomfortable, "Are you going to be able to go to school?" she shook her head. Standing up I walked back upstairs to get ready for school.

Walking out the door for school I looked back at Shino and asked, "Do you want me to take notes for you? We have a lot of the same classes?"

She nodded, "Yeah that would be nice." I could feel Sugu making a suspicious face right behind me.

"Bye mom, Shino, see you guys later!" I shouted as I shut the door and walked out with Sugu. Walking to school I could feel the weird glances that Sugu was giving me. For the past year of high school Mom and Sugu were always trying to get me to ask someone out so that way I wouldn't be bothered so much, but that wasn't really something I had in mind.

(^_^)/ /

School was as boring as ever, and nothing great happened today except for Rika crying because she didn't get to be a beta-tester for SAO, which I wouldn't consider that great but noticeable, after picking up Sugu the walk home became really quiet. "Hey Kazuto," my mom shouted as I walked in the door.

"Heya, what's the problem?" I answered as I walked into the kitchen.

"There isn't a problem; I just wanted to tell you that you got a big package earlier. I had Shino put it on your desk." I couldn't believe that my mom let her into my room. I never thought that this would happen, but what is there to be upset about? Shino was nice, she's cute wait! What am I saying?

"Ah-ah, thanks mom." I ran upstairs to see what this package could possibly be. Opening the box I pulled out what looked like a superhero helmet thing. Looking for the manual I pulled out a piece of paper that said, "Nerve Gear instructions." Looking through the instructions a small letter fell out saying, "Congratulations you have been approved to be a beta-tester of SAO."

\\(^_^)/

A month and week later.

School is finally out, and today is also the opening day for SAO. Rika gave me a note earlier that said that she and Shino wanted to meet me after school today to talk about something, but I have been standing at the school gate waiting for 20 minutes. As I started to walk away I heard, "Kazuto wait!" looking at the direction the sound came from I seen Rika and Shino running toward me in a hurry. They were panting and sweating a lot more than if the just ran here from the entrance of school.

"What took you guys?" I said a little annoyed.

"We had to do something for the teacher," Shino said between breathes. "but we made it at least." I just nodded to that.

"Anyway there's a reason we called you here today." Rika said as if she had something important to announce. I didn't understand why she didn't just come over to my house to tell me though, I wouldn't have had to wait. "Me and Shino here wanted you to join us on SAO today!" I started to figure as much. I remember how much she wanted to play this game, but she had never played MMORPG's before so she made me promise her that I would teach her.

"That's right," I said looking to the sky, "So where do you want to meet? You know any places on the map?" I could tell she didn't know any places on the map just by her face. "Alright meet me in front of the fountain in the town of beginnings. Let see… how about at 6 pm" They both nodded. Shino ran home, and so did Rika. I finally got to walk home alone, which actually felt pretty good, I got plenty of time to think and clear my head.

The walk home was uneventful which is awesome in a few ways. Laying on my bed I slipped on the nerve gear, to play the official release of SAO. "Link Start!" I said nice and loudly as everything went black and I suddenly saw a white screen and multiple colors flying by.

I opened my eyes finding myself in a new environment, the town of beginnings. It felt good to be back in the virtual world to be honest.

I opened my menu to check how much time I had before I meet Rika and Shino at the fountain. "it's four now so I have… two hours!" I said aloud. Closing my menu I seen a guy, a little taller than me. He had orangish red hair, a red bandana, small patch of stuble on his chin and his hair went down to the bottom of his neck in the back. He looked at me top and down; I couldn't tell if he had something to say for awhile or not.

"Hey there I uhh…" he started. He is rubbing the back of his head a lot, and not only thast but he looks really nervous. "man I suck at this!" he threw his arms down and took a deep breath. "I was wondering if you could… you know, help me learn how to play this game." I sighed, I was pretty disappointed on how it turned out. I wanted to hear something extreme, or that he was my biggest fan or something awesome like that, but instead I get asked to be I teacher. Man I thought I was cooler than that.

"Yeah sure I guess." I said trying to play off the fact that I was disappointed with how it turned out, "I got two hours before I meet up with my friends anyway." He looked happy all of the sudden, I didn't know why I guy looking as old as him would be so happy over this though.

"Thanks man that really means a lot ya know?" he said as his smile became more childlike. I couldn't help but laugh on the inside at how childish he was acting over this. He was like a kid when his parents say he can get a toy.

We walked out the gates of the town of beginnings and began his training. It didn't take him too long to catch on, but it seemed tough for him for some reason. After a few more boars were knocked off their feet by the mighty Klein (the guy's name) I walked up to him to ask, "Is this your first MMORPG? You don't seem all too familiar with the concept to me."

He nodded, "Yeah it kind of is, I played a few others with friends but we never played that much, and not only that but I didn't get it back then either. I guess games aren't the same thing for everyone." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "What about you? You seem really good at this game?" Heh I knew he was going to ask, time to show off.

"Whenever I don't have school work, or student council work I always play games; you might know my name depending on which games you have played. I should've told you this earlier, but I'm Kirito." I pointed my thumb at myself trying to be cool. But the plain blue shirt, bronze armor that covered my chest, my long black hair, and basic boots and greaves weren't helping the cool pose I had put on.

"One of my friends is actually a big fan of you, too bad he couldn't get the game today…" see I got fans, "Maybe I wouldn't say fan I guess, more like he thinks of you as his rival." My hopes and dreams were just crushed.

"Yeah I can see why he would think that." I said as I nodded, brushing away my feelings. I couldn't let him damage my pride, nor could I have him think that I am crazy. I opened my menu to see that it was 5:30, thirty minutes before I had to meet Rika and Shino. "Well lets take out a few more before we are out of time." I said drawing my sword pointing it at the next boar. "Watch this." I said with a sly grin. Dashing forward toward the bull I had used my forward slice sword skill allowing me to dash through an enemy. As I got close the boar it charged toward me, allowing me to get the best of the skill, holding my sword a bit to the right I ran right through the boar turning him into little blue and white polygons that spread through the air.

Klein was awestruck; he just stared at where the boar was once standing. I could tell he wasnted to do that so badly also. "Bro, you gotta tell me how you did that?" he was serious, he put both his hands on each of my shoulders. A little grin grew on my face.

"Cool huh?" I said brushing his hands away, "it takes time, skill, patience, weapons, and power to do stuff like that. Just keep grinding, and while you level up, you can practice new techniques." He seemed amazed by what I said. I thought what I said was perfectly normal, but he seemed to think other wise. He grabbed my right hand with his and shook it.

"Thank you Master!" he said with a bow.

"Don't worry, it's the least I could do for you." He checked the time seeing that it was 10 minuets from being six I said, "I am going head back so I meet my friends on time."

"I am going to log out for the day I guess, I ordered a pizza before I logged on, now it's time to celebrate. I wonder what it's like to get hungry in this game." He said opening his menu.

"Who knows," I shrugged, that's not possible is it?

"I know this will sound really dumb, but unless I am stupid I can't find a way to log out." I couldn't believe what he was saying, he's older than me! how could he possibly not be able to log out!? Opening my menu in disbelief I went to the log out screen, only to see the button as disappeared.

"The button is gone! Have you tired to contact the GM (Game Master) yet?"

He nodded, "I did, but he won't answer. This is just some bug right, it will be fixed soon right?" I shrugged. Although I doubted the game would be made this way, whis is way to simple of a problem to not have been fixed already. What could Kayaba be up to? And if the game was, made this way, then what are his plans? Suddenly we both were surrounded by a blue and white aura.

"What's going on!?" I shouted.

"I have no idea!"

We suddenly found ourselves at the town of beginnings plaza. There were people crying, screaming, talking, yelling, and others just stood there quietly not knowing what to do next. We all just stood there like total weirdo's. Suddenly a figure started forming out of the sky (or ceiling) and the sky turned a crimson red. After the figure completed its forming process everybody just stared in fear. I looked around for Shino or Rika, but couldn't see them, and not only that but their avatars probably don't look the same as they do.

Suddenly we heard a god like voice come from the figure, "I am Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of sword art online." A looked around once more only to see ten thousand people all scared for their lives, I seen people clinging to each other, crying on each other, and some just frozen staring at the sky. "As you all have probably noticed the logout button is missing from the menu," oh problem solved right, he came to tell everyone he is going to fix it, "this is not a mistake, it was made this way." Wait what? You mean to say he really did make it this way. And I had faith in you Kayaba (crying on the inside). "The only way to leave this game is to pass all hundred floors without dying once." What does that mean? "Because once you die you die in real life. There is no retry, or revival, and if anyone tried to remove your nerve gear your brain will be fried. And if you die in the game the nerve gear will fry your brain also." The figure started to disappear, but what did all of this mean? "So long gamers, I hope to see you at the end, oh and forgot to mention a few hundred people have already died, there is no point in experimenting." With that the figure went back into the sky, and the sky turned it's normal sunset color.

Suddenly the whole plaza lit blue, no one knew what was going on still. But when the aura went away everyone looked different, I looked over to where Klein was standing, but I saw a guy that had a more built face, more stubble, and his hair was normal length but spiked up over the headband. I pointed at him, "Who're you?" which we ended up doing in unison. Wait… that means I look different to right?"

"Are you still Kirito?" he said pointing at me.

"Yeah, so wait… Klein?" we both checked our item menu only to find an item called 'Mirror' which it's use was pretty obvious. "How?" I said as I looked at myself. I looked like the real me, I definitely didn't look like an avatar anymore. "So that means, that's really how you look?"

( ^_^)/ /~~~~~~

Hope you liked it. Please comment any thoughts, advice or criticism it really means a lot.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Why won't life go our way?

I really appreciate the reviews, they mean a lot! I will try to keep the story as interesting as possible. Oh and sorry about ending the real world backstory quickly, I am actually going to use it a lot further inside the story so I didn't want to spoil it all in the beginning.

Please enjoy!

Oh yeah and almost forgot; I don't own SAO or any of its characters.

( ^-^)/~~~~~~~~

After all the commotion, me and Klein made our ways into an alleyway where nobody else was. We just looked at each other for a good second or two, but we both were still totally flabbergasted at what had just happened to speak. I didn't really like how it happened, or how all this came into being, but now I have no choice but to be a bunch of 0's and 1's the rest of my life. "I don't know what we should do…" Klein looked down in the dumps, this must have really hit him hard. "Should we fight our way to the top, or…"

"There is no or!" I heard a very familiar female voice echo down the alley. Me and Klein both looked to the direction the sound came from to see a shadow getting smaller as someone walked towards us. "We have to fight our way to the top! There is no other way, unless you want to be a mere piece of data the rest of your life." The way she was worked up over this, that voice, that must be….

"Sinon!" I yelled, I heard her footsteps stop, that must be her. I couldn't quite see her yet, she was still in the shadows of the alley way. I decided it would be best to walk over there to see her, but then again there is a chance that it isn't her. As I started walking towards her I heard her start running, and suddenly she popped out of the shadows and hugged me tightly. "Uhh… are you okay?" I asked a little confused at what's happening.

"Why won't it ever just go my way!?" she cried into my chest, "Why won't life just ever be nice to me!? It's like the world hates me!" she was still crying, it's always a good idea to let her have her way in these situations. I wrapped my arms around her trying to make her feel more comfortable.

"That's not true," I said quietly, that's all I really knew how to say though I didn't know what I could say without making it worse, or hurting her other sensitive side. "it just seems that way, but really it's because your strong." I didn't know if that was a lie or not.

She looked up at me and sniffed a few times, wiping her tears on her sleeve she said, "Lis is gone… after what happened she went missing. And I ran because I didn't want anyone to recognize my face." I knew it, she was still scared of other people after all the stuff at school.

"This is no time to be scared, we have to stay strong!" I pumped my fist in the air, "Let's find Lis together." I really didn't know what to tell her, and to be honest I probably felt more helpless than she did. And now that Lis is gone off somewhere I had a few too many things on my plate. I guess Sinon was right, life never goes our way no matter how much we want it to.

"Kirito, If you don't mind…" Klein started, he was scratching the back of his head like he was nervous, looking back at him to show I was listening he started, "I am going now…" I turned around and watched him start to walk off. I started thinking about how I should ask him to help us, but I didn't want to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Could it be easier with him? Or is it better just me and Sinon?

"Klein…" I said stopping him where he was at, "if we meet again let's grind together 'kay?" I said putting my fist out. I honestly didn't want him to go, but he might have things he has to do too; and not only that but I would be dragging him into my problems, which gives him more to worry about. "if you need anything just message me." I said. We bumped fists and he disappeared into the busy town of beginnings.

\\\\(^_^)/

Sinon and I went to the plains right outside of the town of beginnings to level up and hopefully find Lis (Rika) doing the same. After 2 hours we still didn't see her, and I was getting pretty late now, we didn't know what happened to her or if she was all right, but we were both worried like crazy.

"You know Kirito," Sinon said, "I was just thinking, you don't think she went and joined anyone else when she couldn't find us do you?" I looked at her, I didn't know why but this seemed to worry her a lot, but she has a good point that would have been what I did if I was her.

I smiled back at her, "Maybe, but that would be good for her anyway, she would stay safer like that." I looked back at the path we were walking on. My smiling face covered how I really felt about that pretty good, but looking away from Sinon my worried countenance took over and shone through my mask.

"Liar," Sinon said with a sigh, she saw through my mask, "you really are worried about her but can't show it huh?" I looked at her, and then I looked back down. She was right, honestly I was really worried we had known each other since our first year of middle school, and I definitely didn't want to lose her already. I was fine with way later in life, but… the time, the way… life just won't help huh.

"Okay, okay your right…" I said it was hard to think about honestly, all of the stuff we had been through together could be over already. The day I met her she was having a hard time with some of the other kids at school, after helping her I discovered that she didn't have any friends because she was too shy, and she was made fun of for that. I reached out my hand - which she grabbed – offering to be her first friend. She eventually took it, but it took her a second to grab it. I helped Rika overcome her shyness and now she has friends left and right.

"How long have you known Lis, or Rika?"

"Four years, maybe five." I said, as more and more memories came back to my mind.

\ \ ( ^ _ ^ ) / /

As we walked back into town, we just added onto the depressing atmosphere that the town was surrounded in. We walked into an inn only to see that the only person with any emotion was the NPC behind the counter. We rented a room with two beds because that was all we could afford, we were both disappointed when we saw the room. It was small, the walls were wood, the floor was wood, there was two beds with a wood frame, firm mattress, cheap blankets, and then on the opposite side of all that was a cheap ranch couch. Although we both had night lamps and a small night stand with some space on top and three drawers we were still unsatisfied.

As we both sat down on the beds, we felt the firmness in the mattress that was going to kill our backs by tomorrow morning. We looked around the room realizing that there is no bathroom, and no bath. What kind of room was this?

"I wonder," Sinon said looking down like she was embarrassed, "do we even use the restroom in SAO?" she brought up a good point. Is there such a thing as 0's and 1's peeing and pooping, electronic waste maybe? No, no I don't think so; now that you mention it I haven't had to go at all either.

"No, we would just be leaking or dropping bits of data anyway, so there is no point right?" I thought about how that sounded after I said it, but hey it was true (I think), "I mean that would just be weird right?"

She laughed at what I said, at least she seemed a bit cheered up, "but what about a nice bath?" again its of data can't get dirty right. Wait! If we get dirty can't we get corrupted or something, I am just putting too much thought into it.

We both took off our armor and put on more casual clothes. Sinon was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts, and I was wearing a long sleeve black T-shirt and black sweat pants. We lay down and got under our covers, but that didn't really make us feel any better like IRL, in fact it just made us feel worse as we started at the dark ceiling in the room. We could only think about what happened today, and what will happen tomorrow, and tomorrow's tomorrow, and so on.

"Kirito," there was some serious concern in her voice.

"Yeah," I wanted to talk about it anyway, I mean how could we sleep with what happened.

"I was just thinking, what would happen if we never get out of here. Would we just get used to our lives here in Aincrad? Would we just live uncomfortably forever? Or maybe even just have a fake hope that one day, someone, or somehow we will make it out as our body's IRL are just fading away." She was serious, honestly I didn't put too much thought into it as I just thought that we would one day beat floor 100, even if she had a point this isn't the time to be thinking like this, we need to work to be better.

"Don't worry so much. We will find a way out together, and not just together but with everyone. Honestly I am worried to, but right now we need to focus on the problem at hand, and that isn't something to think about right now. What do you say that we work hard together and find Lis, and clear this game!" I tried to make her feel better, but honestly I don't know how much this could really help. After all those were just words, and words alone are nothing but vibrations that might make us feel motivated.

"You're right, even if it doesn't go the way we want it there will always be a way out!" I was happy to hear that from her, yet I felt that there was more that she didn't say, "But Kirito, do you think your parents will be okay, what about Suguha?" I never thought that she would bring that up, but honestly that was a good motivator.

"They will be fine, but I'm sure that they will be grief stricken for a while, or until I get better." After I said that there was a good few moments of silence in the room. "Can I tell you a secret?" I asked.

"Sure," Sinon said.

"I told this to Rika before, but they aren't my real parents or sister." I heard Sinon sigh I don't think she liked where this was going, "A long time ago my parents died, so my aunt and uncle adopted me even though they already had a daughter whom is Suguha. When I was 10 during summer break I got on the internet, and found out that my parents were died from a while ago, and that Sugu is actually my cousin. This changed my relationship with Sugu and my adoptive parents forever. Even after talking to them about not much changed."

"Wow, does Suguha know?" I felt really bad that she didn't know, and that caused us to grow apart because I didn't want her to ever learn the truth. After all I did lover her like my sister whether she was my cousin or not.

"No, I am and was afraid to tell her, because… because I love her like my sister and I really didn't want that to change, so instead we grew apart from each other." Sinon sighed. I didn't think she would want to hear about other people's problems when she still has some herself, and not only that but they are much worse than mine. The way guns, death, and blood affected her was much worse than how I felt about my sister, or parents.

"I'm sorry I asked." I knew it would just make her feel worse, but It felt good to let it go, the only person that knew 'till now was Rika, and she always liked helping me with that stuff, and her parents were awesome about it to.

"It didn't bother you did it?"

"No, it actually helped me, it felt good to share your problems, after all that's what we do for eachother right?"

"Yeah…" we just stared into the darkness, we weren't tired, even though we knew we should sleep, we just couldn't. The pain from each other's past, the problems we're having today and now it was all too much to take in at once. "Tomorrow…" I started before thinking twice about what I was saying, "Tomorrow let's go to the next town." I said quickly.

"Okay, we should take a few quests too, we might find Lis faster that way." I just stayed quiet as I thought about that. She seemed more enthusiastic then a few minutes ago, maybe it was finding Lis that give her a boost, after all she was her only other friend.

"Yeah let's do that, but for now we need to get some sleep." After that I started to doze off.

( ^_^) / /~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope you liked it, plz comment any suggestions or criticism it's really appreciated and helps people grow. I would go more into the backstory between Kazuto and Rika but I'm leaving space for a surprise so just bear with me.

Thanks for reading, like and follow (only if you want).


	4. The meeting

Thanks for the reviews again some of you brought up points I never thought of, so as always they are really helpful. ^_^

I don't own SAO or its characters.

( ^_^) / /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been a month and we still haven't found Lis or passed the first floor. We thought about messaging her, but Sinon didn't have her in her friends list, which was a problem. During the moth that we were searching over 2000 people have died during this month, 300 were beta-testers and the other 1700 were regular players. This didn't change much though, people were pushing the blame on the beta-testers, saying that the beta-testers knew all the best spots to grind and the best quests on the first floor. Though none of this was true we still were being hated, and since I was a beta-tester I have been trying my hardest to hide my identity from Klein and Sinon.

Walking through the entrance to the second city on the first floor, we looked around seeing that it was much different from the town of beginnings. The place was much quieter, peaceful, welcoming, and had a handful of good soldiers spread across the town, though I didn't recognize any as beta-testers. Walking around for a bit looking for some food, we ran into a tall, dark skinned, bald, and kind guy that seemed like he was in a hurry. His face was defined and he had a small goatee.

"Excuse me," I said trying to get his attention, "do you" he cut me off, he seemed to be in a greater hurry than before yet he seemed like he needed to say something.

"Are you going to the meeting too?" he asked, "and what about you two?" we all just looked at him confused. Meeting? What meeting? We all thought at the same time. He looked at our expressions and slowed down a bit, "Sorry, I am heading there myself now, want to come?" we all looked at each other, Sinon nodded, then Klein, I looked up at him (he was at least 6 feet tall) and nodded. Gesturing us to follow him he said, "Follow me."

"Sorry to ask this, but what is the meeting about?" I couldn't help but ask, Argo the info broker, never told us that there was going to be an important meeting in the town of Tolbana.

"We have finally found the boss room in the labyrinth," he explained as fast as he possibly could, "so this meeting is about getting parties together to fight the boss." We all nodded to show we were listening even though he wasn't looking at us at all. "So the more the merrier, and that also means the safer, and not only that but having a long range warrior like her might be really helpful." He said as he pointed at Sinon.

During a quest the reward was kunai and a bow, which were mostly Sinon's type so I gave them to her. Klein is like a fiery Samurai, he likes to look cool even if it doesn't do much damage, so he reacts quike and attacks quick with a katana. I like to have the fastest yet strongest attacks, I carry a 1 handed sword and no shield, I am all about the attack power over defense. When we mix our three types together we still have do defense so our attack power and speed are high allowing us to wipe out enemies quickly, and quietly.

Arriving at the meeting area we saw a brave looking guy standing in front of about 44 people, not including my group. He seemed like the type that would lead his troops into battle, and fight with no mercy. He was around average Japanese height, but he had nice looking medium length blue hair, and blue robe like clothing beneath his bronze armor, and he wore white greaves and tall leather boots, along with his fit look he seemed just right to be a leader.

"Hmmumm," he started, "I would like to thank you all for coming here today. Just by coming here you have shown your care for the other players and your brave hearts shall prevail!" he seemed pretty happy by the number of people that came here, yet I was disappointed that only this many people out of 8000 would be willing to go for others and themselves. "My name is Diavel, and I will be leading the raid against the first floor boss," as we sat down it finally started to get interesting.

"Wait jus' a sec'" I heard a shrewd voice said as a brown, spiky head jumped down next to Diavel. "The names Kibaou, an' I jus' hav' a thing to say to y'all beta-testers." I didn't like where this was going, I felt sweat roll down my face as he spoke. It's not like he would know I was one though right? But his spikey head didn't make me feel any better, and not only that but his face looked aggressive also.

"I think we should get all thos' beta-testers to apologize," yep nothing good can come from a spiky head like that one. "Don't y'all agree, think about it. They knew all the bes' grindin' spots and quests to level up quickly, and they didn't help the rookies." Suddenly that guy from earlier stood up. Towering over Kibaou he pulled a little brown booklet out.

"My name's Agil. And if you don't mind I am going to be jumping in here for a sec'." Agil is cool; I actually wanted to hear what he had to say about this whole thing. I felt a sly grin growing on my face as I watched and listened for what he was going to say next, "I'm sure you all have this little brown handbook here." He started waving it and looked at the crowd. Everyone just nodded and agreed. "The beta-testers wrote this book for us so that way we would now the same spots and quests. And it even has information on the best food in each town. Not to mention the inns."

Klein elbowed me lightly, "why didn't we ever look in there then."

"Because, I thought I could find it myself." We whispered, which just got some people to look at us.

"That's all from me, but I do want to say that I think the beta-testers have done more than enough helping us with this info." With that he went to sit back down. I was surprised, although I didn't recognize him at all from the beta, he was still supportive of the beta-testers.

Diavel signaled for Kibaou to sit down as he continued his speech. "So anyway," he started "inside this guidebook it talks about the boss on page… page… 27?" I started laughing on the inside as he flipped through it looking for the page. "Yeah 28… I think wait… 34 okay it's 34." Everyone flipped to the page to start reading, "I want everyone to form a party with a max of 6 players, and I guess that's it for know."

"You're going to end it just like that!" someone from the crowd yelled then everyone agreed.

"Alright then. Each party will be labeled with a letter from the roman alphabet. The first will be A, second B, third C and so on. The smaller groups will work on defeating the centennial kobolds while the bigger groups focus on the boss. Any suggestions?" he paused for a second waiting for something then said, "well I probably wouldn't have used them anyway, so see you guys tomorrow, and make sure to be prepared."

After everyone left I noticed one girl sitting down with a cloak on, all alone. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk or even see anyone. She also seemed ashamed of something. It didn't take long for Sinon to notice that I was looking over there. She slapped my back and said, "what're you staring at?" I didn't know if she was being playful or serious so I went with a serious answer.

"She seems like she doesn't want to talk to anyone." I said scratching my head, "maybe you should go over and talk to her, she might talk to another girl." Sinon just huffed at that, I could tell she didn't like that idea, but she doesn't really seem to like me talking to other girls except Lis anyway so I thought I could use that to my advantage then. "I'll go then." I started to walk off as I could sense how angry Sinon was getting behind me.

Walking up to her she looked up at me slightly then quickly turned around to look the other way, "wh-what are y-you doing here?" she asked, she almost sounded like she knew me from somewhere.

"Sorry… do I know you?" I asked slightly confused at what was happening.

"n-n-no… sorry…."

"Yeah it's cool," I scratched the back of my neck nervously as I said the next sentence, "So are you alone? If you're planning on going to the boss raid tomorrow you should party with someone."

She shook her head, it seemed like something was on her mind, but she couldn't just let it out. After thinking about it for a second, she reminded me a lot of Asuna, but Asuna always said that games were childish and that she would never play one. "I don't have anyone to party with." She said quietly.

"Then how about me and my friends," I said as I pointed back at them with my thumb. This made Sinon walk over to try to find out what was going on. "We would be cool with having you party with us." But I felt Sinon's cold glare glaring upon us as I said that giving me second thoughts about what I said.

"No thanks, I think I won't go then." She said as she stood up. I could tell she was more the alone type right now, but this really isn't the time to be playing games like this. As I looked at her I noticed that she seemed to have gone through quite a few battles already, and that she was probably an exceptional player compared to a few others so far.

Klein walked up behind me and started to speak, "You should, it isn't a good idea to be living this life alone right? Even if you don't have your friends here right now, you have 8000 people that need help. Being one of the people that help them will make you feel good and who knows, you might want to saty in our party afterwards." What Klein said was true, no matter how you looked at it this game wasn't meant to be lived alone, you should always have at least one friend with you at all times.

"he's right you know," I said trying to get her to come along, "you could die at any minute here, this isn't your normal VRMMO anymore." Honestly she looked like she could care less if she died, she seemed like she really didn't care about what happened to her or the other players.

"Whatever," she said as she stood up and started to walk off, "if I am at the boss room tomorrow then I am joining your party, if not then forget you ever met me. decides we all are going to die anyway." She walked off. I could tell this upset Sinon, but I couldn't figure out why. She looked like she wanted to yell something at the girl that just walked off but couldn't raise her voice louder than a whisper.

"Talk about nasty," Klein said as he sat down, "and here I got my hopes up that we would have not only a new member but a higher chance of survival."

"You probably wanted something else," Sinon said in a suggestive voice.

"I agree," I said nodding.

"Shut up! I would never…"

"Yeah right you face totally shows it!" I said as I pointed at his face, while me and Sinon laughed for a minute he just sat down and starred into the sky. After we stopped laughing we joined him, the atmosphere grew tough and unbearable with some kind of heaviness.

"You know," Klein said slowly, "she might be right, this game could very well be our graves. I didn't live with my family anyway so I don't really care about what they think, but… something inside of me just doesn't want to die this way." He sighed as me and Sinon just looked at him, we didn't know what to say to him when he was like this, "not only that no one is waiting for me, so what's the point?"

"Idiot!" Sinon yelled blowing away the heaviness, "don't think like that! Even if you don't think about it there are plenty of people that would miss you, but not only that but you might meet someone special and want something with them but if you die here you won't be able to help others, or enjoy yourself in the future." I just nodded quietly; even though I knew all of this I still had these thoughts too.

"She's right," I said trying to calm her down a little, "We can't give up here, there is 8000 people waiting for us, and not only that but after we beat this game we will do something meaningful in the real world, something that made beating this game and risking our lives worthwhile. We can't throw our lives away before they even begin can we?" Sinon and Klein both nodded, we stood up and walked out to the inn that we reserved for the night.

Walking through the door we were welcomed by a nice lady that didn't seem like an NPC, but we assumed she was one. Walking up to the counter we got the keys for our three rooms. After we settled down I laid down on the hard, cheap, straw mattress that was supposed to be nice and stared at the ceiling. Everything that we talked about earlier came to my mind, and I couldn't help but think about the possibilities of getting out of here alive and yet, I still always wondered if it was worth it.

To try and take my mind off of this I opened my menu to try and see what my sword needed to be upgraded when I heard a knock on the door. After yelling come in, a girl, a little shorter than me, with her familiar whiskers walked in. It was Argo the info broker, a cheerful person with a lot of life for being trapped in this game.

"I have some news for you Ki-boy," she said as she took a seat on the couch across from the bed. "A buyer wants to buy your information." I was wondering when this was going to happen. Argo would sell personal info only if the person was willing to have it sold, but she would never tell anyone if they were a beta-tester or not, and being a beta-tester herself she got asked that a lot.

"Why I wonder?" I said as I pretended to be thinking about this.

"It was a strange girl that seemed like she wanted nothing to do with the world, and she seemed pretty lifeless too." she explained as the girl from earlier came to mind.

"Did she have a brown cloak on?" I asked to confirm.

"Yeah,"

"What was her name?" Argo scratched her chin, then a grin started to grow widely on her face.

"That'll cost ya quite the amount of Col." I sighed, I should have known she would say that.

"Alright well if she asks again, I will pay to hear her name, 'kay?" I said as I started to yawn.

Argo stood up and started to walk toward the door, "Alright then Ki-boy, I will see ya later, oh and remember to keep me updated on the labyrinth tomorrow 'kay?" she shut the door behind her. I put on my casual clothes that I sleep in and laid down on the bed sighing as I thought about what tomorrow was going to bring, but the chance of seeing Lis at the battle made me feel a little better.

I miss her….

( ^_^)/ /

Sorry for the later than usual update, but I think this was a pretty good chapter, but far from being awesome, so to help me make an awesome chapter please comment and opinions and criticism.

Thanks for reading!


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